Re: how to learn low level RF design

Tim Wescott wrote:
acannell@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Dec 9, 2:18 pm, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
No Spam wrote:
On Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:10:17 -0800, acannell wrote:
I work as an EE, I don't have a degree, but I do have a working
knowledge of analog and digital electronics and have worked on a very
wide variety of circuits.
I have always wanted to learn low level RF "black art" circuit design,
but its just too difficult on my own, and believe me I have tried.
Whats the best kind of job or environment to get started in this? A
"furnace" to be forged in?
Assuming your talking about the more modern and harder to understand RF
in the microwave range.....
Try ham radio. There are allot of v/uhf books around and getting a tech
lic (in the USA) which will allow you on that band is only 25 SIMPLE
questions. Look for people who are hams that do microwave contesting and
"buddy" around with them. Honestly, they will be honored to help.
If your talking HF radio below 100Mhz, your not looking/working hard
enough :-)
Designing an HF receiver that can listen to a teeny signal 20kHz from a
station that makes a fluorescent lamp glow _is_ hard work :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

NICE. :). What was the station?


A multi-multi ham contest. Meaning the dudes in the next tent were blasting along on an antenna about 200ft from the one I was using.

Radio Tirana was another story. They blasted commie propaganda into Europe from Albania, probably using up all the electricity there while the population was starving. The usual :-(


I am talking about making a transmitter and receiver capable of
sending and receiving voice with 3khz bandwidth 1 mile line of sight,
so I suppose that puts me sub 100MHz, and also sub-par as far as my
effort to teach my self it according to one of you. :)

I figure if I could do that, from scratch, using discrete components,
that I would be able to accomplish all of my RF circuit goals for
life, which are basically farting around for fun.

Yeah you are right, I "tried" to do this on my own about 8 years ago
before I even started working as an EE. I've learned quite a bit since
then and I bet I could learn it on my own now. But I am never going to
underestimate the difficulty of successful, non-accidental success of
RF circuitry design. If you can do it, you are pretty much in the
highest rung of the EE ladder, IMHO.


But when one reaches 70 or 80 and the bones get shaky one quickly falls off that rung again. Got a few decades, I guess ;-)


The tricky part here is that I must be able to design the circuit from
scratch to have certain specific parameters, and not just monkey copy
something out of the ARRL book. Although that is an excellent
reference.

Heres a question for you:

Whats the hardest part about doing what I mentioned above? Opinions?


Can't see your whole original post (Can you use some better domain that google.com?). But I don't see anything hard with a one-mile line of sight audio com link. Even well above 100MHz.


"Introduction to Radio Frequency Design" by Hayward.

If you start with the 40 meter band (7MHz) you'll be able to get around the world with 20 watts out on a good day on single sideband, and less than a watt with Morse code.


And then the neighbor comes hollering that his super-cheap TV is falling over backwards.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.
.

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